Forever and Always
by Jericho Wilson
Summary: Drabbles and oneshots of varying lengths dedicated to all the different pairings possible between characters. Villains and heroes alike, any pairings will be written about.
1. Immortal

One day they had to die.

It was a simple fact that every human or alien had to die at a certain age, whether it be from an illness or their bodies growing too weak to function. But Starfire had a very hard time facing up to that fact whenever her eyes met Robin's, and their fingers entwined slowly. The moments were too perfect for her to think about the end.

These thoughts were rushing through her head on a particularly quiet day at the tower. Robin was inching his face closer to her own, his eyes closed and mask discarded to the floor when they had first fallen into this position on the bed. She could feel the magnetic pull of Robin's lips, and wanted desperately to allow herself to let go and be drawn into her boyfriend's body. But she couldn't. Not with the whirlpool of thoughts raging around in her mind at the thought of having to leave planet Earth, to leave the _Universe, _and never return.

Robin froze, eyes still shut and body wavering in the gap between their faces. He waited for a few moments, then hesitantly opened his eyes. He was met with the sight of Starfire in a hunched up position against the wall, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Star?" He asked, inching closer. "Did I do something wrong?" He reached his hand out and was relieved that she didn't object to it resting on her leg.

"I just- Robin. I'm so sorry to ruin our moment, but I am worrying about later. What will we do when we are old? How shall we protect the planet when we are... Gone?" She gazed at him with wide eyes, uncertainty and slight fear etched into them like an open book. Robin sighed.

"Star, there are other heroes who can take over our work. We don't have to be heroes forever. We're the _Teen _Titans, remember? We'll keep saving Earth until we're ready to stop. Then we can live together like any normal couple and leave the bad guys to the next generation. That's how it'll always go, Star. Forever." He lifted his hand from her leg and rested it against her pale cheek.

"Just because we're gone, it doesn't mean the Earth is doomed. Superheroes are immortal in that way. We just keep coming." She smiled slightly at his words, but still felt troubled.

"But Robin, I do not think I can deal with the- the- the _death,_" Starfire choked, eyes watering slightly. Robin moved closer, arms steadily winding their way around her.

"Hey Star, _Star! _Don't cry, it's okay. Just don't think about the future; live in the now. And remember: Immortal. It doesn't matter whether it means us or our work, we're immortal."

And it had more than one meaning, Starfire could see. Superheroes were immortal, yes. But so was her relationship with Robin. While they themselves weren't immortal separately, together they could keep going forever.


	2. Flash (Crash)

The thing about Kid Flash, Jinx thought, was that his ego grew every day. No matter how much she tried to halt its growth by putting him down or insulting him, he'd be right back at her with charming smiles and roses.

Which was how they had got into this situation.

He'd told her he was going out for a run. _Okay, yes, sounds good. Get him to use up a bit of energy so I don't have to put up with him being upbeat all day_. He'd even dressed in normal clothes, which she'd been trying to force him into for weeks.

When he was safely out of the door and away, Jinx had sunk down to the floor and sighed in relief. She loved the man, but if she had to put up with his crazy actions and constant conversation for the rest of her life then she would go _insane. _Brief moments of peace like this were prized and used well.

But after nearly two hours of relaxing and reading in the blissful silence, the boy was still not back. She wanted to pass it off as him just nipping over to some far away country and getting caught up chatting to the natives (_female _natives probably, she thought with a grimace), but that would still bring him back in under half an hour. Great. What a way to spend an early Saturday morning. _Normal_ girls didn't have to go looking for their missing superhero boyfriends.

She pulled her communicator from the pocket of her jeans with more heavy sighs than were probably necessary. She ought to be worried about him in case some kind of villain had captured or hurt him, but she was way too pissed to bother with other emotions. He _knew _that she wanted him to send out a distress call at even the slightest danger. So why _hadn't _he?

"Flash, I don't care where the hell you are, get your ass back home or I swear I will never cook another meal for you again!" The communicator gave out a bit of rustling in response, a muffled groan, and then a voice.

"Jinx. I-I'm downtown right now. Next to Jo's? Yeah, well I kind of thought I could beat my personal speed record. And collapsed. Come get me?" The tired voice crackled through sheepishly. Jinx glared at it. Only _he _could manage to collapse when only a mile away from home, and from nothing but his ego. Which meant Jinx had to walk a full mile to get him.

* * *

"I," Jinx groaned heavily. "Hate," She growled as she hoisted her boyfriend further down the street. "You."

Kid Flash yawned heavily, his feet dragging along the ground as Jinx tried her best to carry the wiped out teen back home.

"Baby, you could never hate me. I know you lo-" She looked down at him, waiting for the end of the half finished sentence. She shook her head at the sight she was holding on to.

He was fast asleep in her arms, breathing softly and leaning against her chest.

_Since when did I let him become so _cute?


	3. Sticks and Stones

**To everyone wanting jerikole, I have a system going where I've always got one fanfic on the go. This was the one I wanted for chapter three, so jerikole comes next :)**

* * *

She thought she could handle pretty much anything that got thrown at her by her team mates. She had seen worse, fought worse, and lived through worse than movie night arguments and loud complaining over chores. She had also thought she could deal with playful banter.

It turned out there was one kind she couldn't deal with. At all.

Beast Boy calling her creepy was something she had kind of expected at some point or another. Well, not Beast Boy personally saying that word, but he seemed to be the one with the biggest mouth who wouldn't hold back his true thoughts of her. Creepy just so happened to be the word he'd used to stab straight through her with an iron fist until she could barely breathe from the panic swelling up inside.

Sticks and stones, Raven. Sticks and stones.

But no matter how much goading she gave her emotions, they refused to settle and calm within her. She tried meditation, she tried talking to herself, heck, she even contemplated the various spell books that had lain dormant in her room ever since she moved in. But she stopped herself just in time; the situation wasn't that serious.

Except it was. With any other Titan she would probably be slightly hurt, but the anger would overrule the pain. With Beast Boy, it felt like the ultimate betrayal of the trust and friendship that she had allowed herself to feel for him.

Friendship...

The door was now starting to rattle slightly under the desperate knocking from the other side. A high pitched voice cut through the thick metal in a constant stream of apologies. She could feel the waves of regret emanating from the boy behind the door, but she was unable to let him in. Because she was afraid of what she would do.

It wasn't that her emotions were unstable enough that she would harm Beast Boy, or even get mad at him. Instead she felt empty, rather than ready to explode. She needed Beast Boy to come in and apologise, and that was bad. Very bad. If Beast Boy walked in through the door then her desperation could easily get the better of her and end in some kind of act of affection that she had sternly told herself she would not give in to. If he only thought of her as a friend, then she only needed to think of him as a friend.

But it didn't work like that, did it?

She approached the door against her will, heart overruling mind in this situation as she desperately yelled at the rest of her body to stop. But Beast Boy's agitated voice was calling her in. She needed to stop him from yelling and show him that she cared for him, but she didn't want to. She'd been taught never to show emotion. Since when had her heart even developed this ability to feel so strongly for someone?

The door slid open. Beast Boy's jaw was hung wide in shock as his half formed words died out on his lips.

"Er, Raven?" He asked quietly. Her blank expression was enough to warn him to be careful. She didn't react to his words, but took him by the arm into her room. He glanced at her uncomfortably.

"Raven? You okay?" He asked again, this time getting a flicker across her face. It wasn't the anger he had expected though, it was... A smile?

But that wasn't possible. The only time Raven really smiled was when she was so happy and relieved to have her group back together that she forgot her restrictions for a moment. She'd never even come close to doing that around Beast Boy, and it was usually the complete opposite way round. She would lose control of her emotions and get mad rather than happy.

Something freaky was going on.

She stopped them in the middle of her room and looked down at Beast Boy with sad eyes. He shifted uncomfortably and focussed on a few books on the wall behind her head.

"Look, if this is about what I said and you're really mad, then I'm sorry. I thought you wouldn't mind that sort of thing. I've called you worse before..." Beast Boy trailed off at the look Raven was giving him. She looked like she finally had some colour in her pale cheeks, and was fighting back that small smile he'd noticed before.

Then, faster than he could really process, her arms flew out and wrapped around him in a quick hug. When he realised what was happening his arms moved up to her back, but were met by nothing. She had already pulled away and was dragging him towards the door.

He stumbled out into the corridor and quickly turned. But the door was shut tight, no noise coming from behind, and with definitely no chance of getting Raven to open it. He stared at it in shock.

If he wasn't hallucinating, and that had really just happened, then he guessed it was a real improvement. She might even like him a little now.

He just wasn't going to be calling her any names again anytime soon.


	4. Technological

**Not quite canon at all, but I've been desperate to write something where Kole is left behind in the world and Jericho feels out of place for a long time. Also, I managed to break my internet and then fixed it by _pressing one button_.**

* * *

Jericho had first realised that he wasn't alone in his confusion on around the fifth or sixth (days of nothing but video games, guitar playing, and the occasional villain to fight tended to blur together) day of staying at the tower. It was around seven in the morning, and he was almost certain that no other Titans would be awake at this time. Certainly the other boys wouldn't be; they slept until noon most days, and only got up (begrudgingly) if the alarm went off.

This morning he was all set for some quality alone time, sat in peaceful silence watching the city wake through the large glass window. He might even be able to create something edible out of the mess in the kitchen if luck was on his side.

However, when the door swung open, he wasn't met by the empty room and the rising sun. He was met by the rising sun lighting up a girl in the kitchen area, who was dressed in pyjamas still (like Jericho himself) and who was clutching a toaster in her hands.

_And shaking it over her head._

Jericho didn't even know what to do. He recognised the girl from the fighting, and seeing her slink off to the bedrooms with the other girls who wanted to get away from the testosterone filled room of competitive superhero gamers. But she had seemed perfectly normal up until now.

He stood in the doorway and observed the scene for a while longer. He tried to get some sort of a sense of what was actually going on, but caught only the fact that the girl was cussing furiously as she shook the toaster.

He knocked lightly on the wall beside the door to alert her to his presence. Her head snapped up and she froze, toaster in hand, looking quite guilty.

"I didn't- I don't-" She looked back down at the item in her hands, blushing. "I'll just... go," she mumbled, putting down the appliance and shuffling past where he stood and trying to get out the door. His hand reached out and rested on her shoulder.

She stopped and turned. She looked kind of hesitant, and that cute blush hadn't left her face. Jericho wanted to ask her what she was doing, but so far had found only two Titans who knew sign language. There really wasn't much of a chance. Instead, he tilted his head quizzically to the side.

She sighed and stepped back into the room.

"You're Jericho right? The one who can't talk." It wasn't the most polite or sensitive way it'd been put so far, but he didn't mind. It was nice to have a sense of normality rather than having people cooing over how difficult it must be to have his disability. How _awful _it must be to be mute. He was sick of sympathy. He nodded in confirmation.

"I'm sorry about that. Everything's just so _confusing _here, and all I wanted was to get something to eat, and I forgot how Cyborg said this thing worked, and now I must look like an idiot because I can't work a-" Her voice petered out as she turned to look at the toaster sitting on the counter. Jericho wanted to smile, but the seriousness of the girl's actions made him stop. She really did have no idea how to use a toaster.

"-What even _is _this thing anyway?" She moved towards it and hesitantly pressed a few buttons. Nothing happened, so Jericho quickly pulled the notepad off the edge of the counter and started to scribble onto the page.

_It's called a toaster. It cooks bread._

She read over the note a few times then smiled.

"Thank you, Jericho. Being in the upper world, and especially in a place so full of new technology, is really confusing for me. I've been away from the world for so long that everything is just so big and weird. I can kind of understand why Gnarrk stayed back at home when I offered for him to stay over with me; if it scares me then who knows what it would do for him?"

Jericho nodded along. He knew nothing of 'Gnarrk' but he knew the feeling of being left behind several years when it came to technology. Of course, living up a mountain and living in an underground prehistoric world were quite different versions of 'away from society,' but he sympathised with her nonetheless.

_I know what you mean._

She frowned at the piece of paper, confused. How could this normal kid ever know how she felt? She was an outcast in the modern world, not someone looking for false sympathy.

He quickly scribbled down another note and thrust it into her hands.

_I can't talk and I've lived up a mountain for half my life._

She looked back up at him and smiled. That was enough for her. She turned away from the problematic kitchen appliance and moved to the table in the centre of the kitchen. She patted the seat next to her and watched as Jericho fumbled and tripped over himself to sit down. He was almost as socially awkward as herself. The only thing that kept her going in conversations was that she was desperate to be nice to people, and would end up just exchanging compliments so she didn't get left behind in some strange modern discussion.

Just as they settled into their seats, the rising sun came out from behind the early morning mist and nearly blinded the two as it flooded the room in golden light. Kole winced. Jericho smiled.

"It's scary here, but it's beautiful too. Not the cities - I could go on _forever _about why the cities are so wrong – but it's just so picturesque by the bay. This was a great place to build the tower, if only for the beauty factor." Jericho nodded beside her. He knew how to appreciate nature (the beauty within it especially) and was desperate to share the light and the colours with someone else after so many years. He stared out the large windows at the way the city had turned golden under the sun, and let the heat wash over him as it flooded the room.

Then he felt a sudden extra heat, on his hand. It wasn't a light heat washing across the room like that from sunlight, but was smothering and definitely a solid object.

When he looked down, he saw that it was another hand.

Kole blushed and looked back out the windows to avoid Jericho's eyes.

"It just... It feels right? It's what people do when they want to share a moment together. I think. It feels right, so I guess it must be?" She didn't need to look to the side to know he was nodding in agreement. It was a bit scary to have to be the communicator between the two, but it felt way more natural than any of the conversations she'd had with other Titans so far had. Maybe that was what had spurred on the sudden random action; she felt so comfortable here. Even if their heart to heart had been barely a few words on paper long, it was enough to bring a trust and acceptance that she'd been searching for for so long.

_Shall we sit by the window? _ The note read. Kole curled her fingers around the edge of his hand and urged him up. With that hand clasped in her own, she lead them both to the carpeted floor beside the windows. Here the sunlight was like nothing she had seen before (the Northern Lights did indeed compare, but never had she felt such happiness in seeing them).

She smiled as she felt the weight of Jericho's head resting in the crook of her neck. Her hand stayed gripped in his own. The sun continued to rise over the sparkling bay.


End file.
